BJP leader and former Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, who won by a massive margin in the Assembly elections, will to continue as Gujarat Chief Minister for a second term after he was elected legislative party leader in meeting of BJP MLAs. (PTI)
The Congress has been "forced" to look for its existence after the record victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the just concludedGujaratAssembly polls, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Friday. The BJP has won 156 seats in the 182-member Assembly in the western state, the highest tally garnered by any party inGujarat's 62-year-old history. The Opposition Congress managed to emerge victorious on just 17 seats, down from 77 it had won in 2017. "Today, the condition of Congress is such that it is forced to look for its existence," Scindia, who arrived here to take part in various programmes, told reporters.
Union Minister and BJP leader Bhupender Yadav on Friday attributed the party's victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's welfare policies for the poor and asserted that this mandate had made it clear that people were in favour of empowerment and not "revdis" (freebies) for political objectives.
He further said the result showed that the welfare policies being run under Modi's leadership had changed the lives of the poor and the marginalised sections.